Basic is the whole clipper
Worth saying first, because it is the most common wrong assumption: the audio path in Basic is not a reduced version of Pro's. Same clipper, same anti-aliasing, same true-peak limiter.
In Basic you get:
- Drive and Ceiling, the two controls that do the actual work
- All three quality tiers, Normal, HQ and Ultra. None of them is paywalled
- TP safety limiter, with its lookahead and release set for you
- Delta listen, so you can hear exactly what the clipper is removing
- Auto gain, output true-peak meters, and the waveform with gain-reduction display
- The preset system: save, load and A/B your own
That set is enough to clip a record properly. If something sounds wrong, Pro is usually not the answer: start with why it distorts on some sources.
What Pro adds
Pro is about shaping the clip and working faster, not about clipping harder.
Shaping the sound
| Control | What it does |
|---|---|
| Shape | Moves the knee from soft to hard. Softer rounds the corner and reduces harshness, at the cost of some transient bite |
| Mode: Adaptive | Clips hard on the hits and soft everywhere else, keeping transients punchy where a fixed hard corner would turn harsh. In Adaptive, the Shape knob becomes Reactivity, which sets how readily it treats a sound as a hit |
| Density | Tube to punch. Adds harmonic excitement that helps glue large peaks together |
| Tone | Warm to bright. Offsets the tonal shift the clipping harmonics introduce |
| Mix | Parallel dry and wet, so you can clip hard and blend back some original transient |
More control over what you already have
| Control | Basic | Pro |
|---|---|---|
| TP safety limiter | automatic | adds Lookahead and Release |
| Delta listen | the clipper | adds source select, so you can hear the clipper and the limiter separately |
| L/R Link (stereo link) | always linked | variable, so the channels can move independently |
Working faster
- Factory presets. HardStop currently ships with Factory Default, the init state, in both tiers. A curated library of Pro presets is on the way in a future update.
- LUFS metering: integrated and short-term loudness plus the session true peak, in a readout at the bottom right of the waveform on the Advanced view. Basic keeps the output true-peak meters, so headroom is still visible. Useful when setting a ceiling for export.
Which one am I running?
Look at the badge on the license panel: it reads PRO, FREE TRIAL or BASIC. In Basic, the Advanced view also shows an upgrade banner.
The other tell is the advanced page. Both tiers show the same controls, but in Basic the Pro ones are dimmed and locked: they keep showing their saved settings, but they do not affect the sound. That is deliberate rather than a bug, and it is why a Pro preset can be loaded in Basic without breaking anything.
Presets across the two tiers
There is only one plugin binary, so presets are the same format in both directions.
- A preset you make in Basic works in Pro, always. Nothing to convert.
- A Pro preset loaded in Basic will open and show its settings, but the Pro controls read as neutral, so it sounds like Basic. HardStop tells you this has happened rather than leaving you wondering why a preset sounds different.
Upgrading
Purchasing upgrades the plugin in place. There is no second installer, no separate plugin to swap into your sessions, and no re-scan. Your presets and settings carry over, and existing sessions keep working exactly as they were, with the Pro controls now live.
The same is true coming off a trial: the trial and the purchase run the same binary, so nothing about your projects changes when you buy.
Details and current pricing are on the HardStop product page.
What Pro will not fix
Honest answer, since this is the question behind most upgrade emails:
- Harshness on bright material. Tone and Mix help, but the real fix is usually less drive or a higher quality tier, both of which are in Basic. See why it distorts on some sources.
- Overs after export. That is the TP safety limiter and your ceiling, which Basic has. See it measured under the ceiling but still distorted.
- Not knowing how much is too much. That is a listening procedure, not a feature. See how to judge a clipper without fooling yourself.
Pro earns its place when you want to shape the character of the clipping, work with presets, or meter loudness without leaving the plugin. It does not make a badly clipped mix good.